While disappointed to see the season come to a close, feelings of hope, pride, optimism and an overall sense of brotherhood seeped through every interaction.

It’s amazing to think how far the Chargers have come in such a short period of time. At this point last year, the team didn’t even have a head coach. Thus, we asked the team for their feelings on Mike McCoy, and the answers show a great deal about how the team feels about its leader.

Here is a sampling of what some of them had to say:

“His constancy and his belief in each individual player on each side of the ball is amazing. His belief in the team and his confidence he instills in everyone, it means the world to know you have a head coach who will back you up and thinks the world of you. And he is understanding. He knows what this league is all about and he wants what’s best for us as players. So he has done an unbelievable job and it will only get better in the future.” – Eric Weddle

“He is very detailed in what he talks about and very passionate. When you think about a head coach you think about many different things, but the important thing is he finds a way to motivate. I think that more than anything else is what sticks out to me. He finds a way to motivate each player, and that is what sticks out to me.” - Antonio Gates

“It is just so awesome to see how quickly he has turned around this organization. He has changed the culture of the entire football team and led us to expect to win every football game. We went into each game expecting to win every time. I can’t say enough what he means to this team.” – Nick Hardwick

“The energy he’s brought has been real good. It changed everything up with us. He made us believe. He brought us together as a team. It’s good now and it will be good from here on out.” – Ryan Mathews

“It’s awesome. He delivered a message to us, we believed in his plan, we believed in his philosophy and the personality he wanted to instill into this team. I’m looking forward to playing for him the next couple years, God-willing.” – Jahleel Addae

“Coach McCoy means a lot not only to me, but the team. Where he thought we could go and the position he put us in, I think it speaks for itself.” – Keenan Allen

“Coach is a great guy, let alone coach, so he really did a good job of bringing us all together. I think that definitely showed because we were playing as a team. That’s what it’s all about – getting the best out of your team, and that was evident definitely in the last month or so of the season.” – Kendall Reyes

“I learned right away that Coach McCoy is a great worker and a great motivator. People really just fall in line behind him. He just got us ready every game. He is really good at putting us in the right position.” – Reggie Walker

“He’s a good coach, a player’s coach – someone that believes in his players and trusts in his players. That’s big coming from a head coach. Just knowing your coach has your back while you’re out there on the field and has your back in all aspects of the game and in just everyday life.” – Richard Marshall

“He put a goal before us from the very start that we were going to try to be the best team out there this year. That echoed through everything we did from practice to meetings.” – Rich Ohrnberger

“It was good. Just being a rookie coach, you kind of learn as you go and you just saw consistent improvement from him as far as the way he carried himself with the team.” – Chad Rinehart

“Straight-forward guy. He’ll shoot you straight every time. A good coach to lead us in the right direction.” – Tourek Williams